The usual disclaimers apply... How I wish that Harry Potter and co. belonged to
me... They have a world that I would LOVE to live in.
SilverDawn
The Awakening of a Royal
Chapter 6: Glamourie… Voldemort in France?
The classes went along rather smoothly; quickly too, and dinner had ended, leaving students with three hours of free time till curfew. Many of the UWIM students had already gone back for their night lessons via the teleportation in the UWIM common room, except for those who were in the Court of Twelve, for they were assigned to help Professor Salazar and Professor Kadamon in placing spells and wards to strengthen the protective spells in the school as there were too many important people residing in the school grounds.
Silverdawn finished her allocated work in record time and met up with Hermione at the stairs leading to the dungeons.
"Er… Silver, I don't think only the Professors know where Professor Snape's rooms are." Hermione said in a small voice, but Silverdawn assured her, "Don't worry, I know where he lives."
"You do?" Hermione was surprised at this, as no student in Hogwarts had been able to find the Professor's suite, no matter how hard they tried… It came as a shock for her that a transfer student should know his rooms, ::but then again,:: Hermione thought to herself, ::Silverdawn isn't an ordinary student…:: Blindly, Hermione followed Silverdawn down to the lowest levels of the dungeons, passed by the stone statue that led into the Slytherin common room, and finally stopped in front of the portrait of a dragon. The creature glared at the two girls in intense ferocity, as if taunting them to speak.
"Athena." Silverdawn whispered softly. In turn, the dragon did a rough sketch of a bow, head resting between his front paws, and the portrait slipped open to reveal a hallway full of animal portraits. ::I never knew that Professor Snape liked animals:: Hermione thought wryly, and Silverdawn (who heard it), replied aloud, "You never know what Professor Snape is truly like, 'Mione." This rendered Hermione speechless, and they walked down the darkly lit corridor in silence. Shortly, they reached a living room where the fireplace was already banked, leaving the entire room relatively cold and damp. Silverdawn stared at the hearth, eyes turning silvery-purple, and a fire burned heartily, smothering the wood that the girl had thrown in earlier on. Her companion jumped back in surprise, and the black-haired girl glanced at her apologetically.
"You do wandless magic?" Hermione asked, astonished, and, braiding her long hair into a plait, Silverdawn replied calmly, "I don't like using a wand." Hazel brown eyes stared at her in a shocked manner, but Silverdawn chose not to bother about it. She walked around, tidying up the papers that were scattered on the coffee table in front of the fireplace, whilst Hermione took the opportunity to look at Snape's rooms.
Everyone had been curious as to what the Potions Master had in his rooms, and once, Ron had shuddered, saying, "His rooms is very likely to have all those creepy skeleton skulls and whips…" However, there was no such stuff in his rooms'… truth to be told, it was fairly decent – the stone floors were covered in dull reddish-black carpeting, with a bearskin rug before of the fireplace, just in front of the coffee table. Two high-backed chairs were placed strategically to face the hearth so that the welcoming fire could warm the persons sitting there.
A family portrait was hung above the mantle, but Hermione could not find Snape (as in Professor Snape) in it. A small, dining table stood by one corner, void of any ornamentation save a candleholder. The bookcases that were situated by a plush black leather couch were filled with all sorts of tomes, both old and new. One of the bookcases also contained countless vials of potions that have colors spanning the entire color wheel, all of which sparked Hermione's curiosity. She was on the threshold of taking out the tome, 'Potions for Mastery' , but was stopped by Silverdawn, "Professor Snape would not like his private collection touched." Hermione had the decency to look guilty and Silverdawn took her wavering hand and led her into the inner sanctum of the infamous Potions Master's bedroom.
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Professor Snape was lying on the bed, thrashing against the black coverlets, his nightmares far worse than before. His black button-up shirt was damp with sweat, and Silverdawn frowned, answering Hermione's unasked question, "The effects induced by the Dreamless Sleep potion has worn off…" She fished out her platinum box, charmed it back to its original size, and took out a translucent vial. After that, she force-fed him with the yellow potion, with Hermione inquiring, "Should we get him out of that drenched shirt?"
"Good idea."
After a few minutes, the professor finally quieten down, no longer looking so martyred. Silverdawn then whispered something, drawing a finger in the air above Snape's face, leaving a stream of blue energy healing him. Hermione watched with fascination as the blue light diffused into the sleeping man's body, leaving him glowing softly. Satisfied, Silverdawn asked, "'Mione, can you help me get him of the shirt by yourself?"
Startled, Hermione asked, "By myself?" The other girl nodded regretfully, explaining, "I'm sorry, but I have to tend to some things, then I'll be cooking some stuff for him to get down his throat…"
"All right…" Hermione said reluctantly, and Silverdawn offered diffidently, "Would you like to eat anything for supper? We're gonna stay here for quite a long while… I can cook whatever you choose." At this, Hermione smiled slyly, "Do you really mean, whatever I choose?" Silverdawn saw this smile, and turned wary, "'Mione, what do you want to eat???" The sly smile widened into a grin as the brunette replied nonchalantly, "Oh, I want a sirloin steak, medium rare, cream of mushroom soup, home-made mint ice-cream for dessert and iced lemon tea!" The black-haired girl stared at Hermione, disbelief bordered on utmost shock evident in her violet eyes.
"You had just eaten half an hour ago!" Silverdawn exclaimed, but the Prefect just shrugged, "You said that I could choose anything…" The black-haired girl looked chagrined, but a deal was a deal, and she spoke, defeated, "'Mione, you really know how to eat!"
"I'm still growing, aren't I?" Hermione replied cheekily, patting her stomach, and the other girl grinned back at her, "Oui, you really have a large appetite!" Both of them laughed outrageously, but were interrupted by the stirring of the sleeping professor, and they quieten down, though not entirely. When they had finally gotten the mirth out of their systems, Silverdawn said straight-faced, "I'll get the food done soon, but my work comes first. So see you later." Hermione waved at the retreating figure, and turned back to meet the form of the still-sleeping professor.
Then, Silver peeked into the chamber again, and said casually, "Oh, and 'Mione, he should be waking in about two hours' time. After getting him out of the garment, can you help me check out his workroom and tidy it up?" Hazel-brown eyes bulged on hearing that she had to help clean up the infamous Snape's workroom, ::I don't wanna die should he find me touching his stuff!::, but nodded mutely as the slim black-head nodded her thanks and disapparated.
"I thought that you can't apparate within Hogwarts grounds…" Hermione wondered, truly confused. Once again, she stared dumbly at the professor, and sighed, "Better get my work done. I wanna try Silver's cooking." With the food as a motivation (a/n: I know it's dumb, but everyone loves good food, especially when you personally chose the menu. At least I do!), she walked up to the four-poster bed where the blankets were strewn all over the feather bed.
Dreading to do the task assigned for her, Hermione moved in an agonizingly slow pace, watching the now placid professor. The strict-as-commando Potions Master looked very awful, its formerly sallow skin even paler than usual, until it was practically white, and the pale blue light that shimmered from his body did not alleviate the condition - on the contrary, it only made him look more like a ghost instead of a living human. His coal-black hair was as greasy as ever, and Hermione wondered what did he do to his hair to make it look like that? It was obviously left so slimy for a reason, but Hermione could not make out why a person would ever want to do that...
::Was he balding???:: She thought cynically, but continued to scrutinize him.
The harsh planes on his face mellowed very much, in fact, the every familiar frown he wore was replaced by a look of peace and serenity. ::Odd…:: Hermione thought to herself, never expecting herself to use such words to describe the expression on Snape's face. Shaking her hand, she tugged out the shirt flaps from his equally black pants, feeling very, very awkward. Looking at the professor's face, she made sure that he was still asleep, and started unbuttoning his shirt. Her face was hot, her hands trembling, for she was seldom so close to any man, including her father.
True, she had gone steady with Viktor Krum for about a year before they broke up, feeling that the overseas relationship could never work out. (In the end, they had separated and remained friends, though not very close.) Still, during their being together, the farthest they had gotten was French kissing and holding of hands, no further. They had never engaged in heavy petting, and although she had been hugged intimately ever so often by the boyfriends she had, she had never gotten so aroused that she would ever initiate heavy petting, much less, sex. Thus, unbuttoning shirts for the opposite sex is totally new to him, even if the man was old enough to be her father…
Fumbling a little with the buttons, she finally gotten all of them out, and tried to get the sleeves out of his arms. She lifted the sleeping Snape's right arm, ::Man, this is heavy!:: and strained a little to get the long sleeve out of his arm. She then proceeded to his left arm in a faster pace as she was prepared of the heaviness of his limbs.
"Oomph!" Hermione moaned when both sleeves were finally out. She commenced to pull out the shirt from underneath his body, but the tattoo on his left arm distracted her from the errand. Under the relatively dim light, she squinted her eyes… and sucked her breath quickly on realizing that it was the Dark Mark that signaled his status as a Death Eater. Totally awestruck, she studied the skull, shuddering at the amount of evil that seemed to still emanate from it. Hermione stared at it for what seemed hours, locked by some force that compelled her to study the mark. It was only when Snape turned restlessly did she snap back and hurriedly yank the shirt from underneath him. Then, she pulled the covers over him, and quickly left the chamber.
When she was in the relative safety of the Snape's workroom, she wandered around, mind full of questions that had no answers… She turned to one of the bookcases that had elaborate carvings, and absently took a leather bound book out, noticing that there was an engraved emblem in the spine. The title was written in an some sort of arcane language, but somehow, she managed to read out, "Atzulith – the last ethereal".
"Weird…" Hermione murmured softly, and found a space in another one of the bookcases. Inquisitive as to why the stuffed bookcase had a space, she stared at it, and the mirror image of the emblem on the book on her hand slowly appeared in front of her eyes. Piecing one to one, she hesitantly put the book, spine inside, into the slot.
A quiet rumble echoed as the bookcases slid to one side to reveal a small pathway. The brown-haired girl looked shocked and cautiously entered the secret chamber, curious as to what this room could hold. The pathway led into a moderately large room that looked to be a female's bedroom. It was quite lavishly furnished, a four-poster bed by the side, an antique armoire, a white couch with large cushions by the fireplace, a cherry wood dresser with several bottles of lotions and stuff. Most importantly, there were a lot of portraits in the room, all of which were of a girl/woman.
The portraits featured different periods of her life, from her schooldays until she was about twenty-one. What shocked her most that the girl or lady in the portraits looked uncannily like Silverdawn! The lady had waist length ebony-black hair, straight and silky, with soft curls forming at the ends. The smiles she wore were practically identical to her friend's, with only the subtle difference being that this girl's smile was more feminine than Silverdawn's usual innocently sweet smile. Also, the girl had sapphire blue eyes rather than the silver eyes her black-haired friend had. Some of it had a handsome hunk in it, someone who resembled more like Professor Salazar rather than Professor Severus Snape. Stunned by these portraits, she flopped into the white couch and tried to sort out her thoughts.
::I know that he is a spy for Professor Dumbledore, is this the reason why he got knocked out earlier? He looks real sick… God! I can't believe that I really am worried for that greasy git! How did Silver know about his rooms? And why does the lady in the portrait remind me of Silverdawn? How did I even manage to enter this place?:: Hermione's thoughts were totally jumbled, and she groaned long and loud, knowing that these questions will never have an answer… at least for now. She took her time to rest, staring blankly at the fireplace, and finally headed out of the room.
She placed the book back to its original place, fearing that Professor Snape might notice, and started cleaning up. The cluttered tables were cleared; dirty cauldrons washed, potion vials returned to their supposed cabinets, and everything else was put back to their proper places. It was a tiring job, but it gave her some sort of distraction for her long train of thoughts. It took her approximately an hour plus to clear the entire suite, from the workroom, to the other rooms, though they were not under her assigned chores. Silverdawn had not come back when she finished, thus she entered Snape's room again, and pulled a chair near his bed. She had wanted to keep vigil until he showed signs of waking up, but the day's weariness was starting to take a toll on her. In the end, her leaden eyelids drooped.
::Just a few minute's of rest:: Hermione mumbled to herself, and dozed off…
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After leaving Snape's chamber, Silverdawn leaned against the walls, heaving. ::Looks like I'm still not used to the surroundings…:: she thought wryly, and closed her eyes. The sigil flared on her forehead, glowing a little silver, as she shapeshifted… She started getting smaller, scarlet red wings shimmering as she transformed into a phoenix that had silver and orangey-red feathers… Swiftly, she flew out of the dungeons, turning at the correct places, until she got out of the castle and into the forbidden forest. Perched on a pine tree, she then changed back into her original form and continued standing on the branches as if she had no weight.
A wind blew from nowhere, ruffling her now-silver hair in an affectionate manner. She sighed softly, raised out her hand and silver threads flowed from her fingers with which she drew a complex seal in front of her. The energy pulsated with unknown strength and slowly wove around the entire forest, keeping the place heavily shielded from those with the Mage gift. Satisfied, she then brought her hands together as if in prayer, and spoke, "Now, all of you can come out."
As if heeding her command, the wind swirled before her, and three men appeared. All three of them were tall, at least 6 foot in height, and had an air of authority from their bearing and looks.
The young man to the right looked very perceptive, with chiseled features fit for an aristocrat, but had no air of arrogance in him. Instead, he seemed to be filled with humility and good humor, and this was reflected in those light, jade green eyes that was a little covered by his light brown bangs that fell onto his face. The man on the left looked serious and solemn, which was a huge contrast to the brown-haired man. He was also a pretty handsome fellow, his mahogany-brown hair trimmed at the nape of his neck, properly combed to look professional. He looked rather cold, for his hazel-brown eyes were void of any emotion, causing him to be feared by many in his area of expertise. The man in the center was the tallest among the trio, standing at 6"5, with shoulder length, razor-cut blond hair and peculiar sky-blue eyes. He was rather tanned, and had a lank but trim build. A smile curved around his luscious lips, and he looked as if he could converse with strangers easily.
"Your highness," the blond-haired man smiled at the silver-haired princess, before enveloping her in a warm hug. Carefully, he transferred energy to the young girl to help her recuperate… he had been doing this since last summer, and never once had he minded it.
"Raphael," Silverdawn smiled in return, and acknowledged the other two angels behind Raphael, "Raziel. Uriel." The other two men bowed respectfully, smiling as they started forward to hug the young princess. Information on the others was exchanged before the usually smiley-faced Raziel sobered and started in a humorless voice, "Your highness, the information I gather from the sources under Tzephkiel isn't good. Voldemort's minions are starting to gather in France too… with Paris as the center. The numbers that joined have made a jump in the last three months."
"Voldemort has made Belial and Matthias Nott monitor the Death Eater progress in Munich, Robert Avery and Neil Bulstrode to be in charge of France, and Leviathan and Lucius Malfoy to check on the muggle killings in Ireland and the Netherlands." Uriel continued, handing a stack of reports to Silverdawn.
"We have managed to prevent most of the raids, but about 17.8% of them were out of our predictions. I apologize for our miscalculations, princess." Raphael said in a muted tone, but Silverdawn just shook her head, answering, "There is bound to be some inaccuracy in the calculations as to where they might raid. Keep working with the Universal Elite and the defense teams in UWIM on this. I'll get evidence from the British Ministry to allow the Elite to arrange a full-scale attack on Voldemort's forces. For now, just lay low. Do whatever you can in the other countries, but let Voldemort think that he can take over England and Scotland easily. We haven't gotten the ministry's permission, so we can't really do anything…"
Suddenly, a dove flew to perch on Raziel's shoulder, and everyone stopped talking to look at what the pure creature had to say to the brown-haired man. Less than a minute later, it flew off, leaving an amazed Raziel behind.
"What did he say?" Raphael asked curiously, and the latter murmured, "Oh, that Anael had found another cave of snow dragons in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, near Cape Columbus, and that I'm to check them out." Uriel was rather alarmed by this statement, and wondered aloud, "Why is it that more and more dragon lairs are being uncovered in these two years?"
"Probably because the gates to the kingdom of Dragons are going to open very soon, and many wish to see it before it closes. That's why they are willing to go with Anael." Silverdawn said calmly, earning incredulous stares from the trio. They gathered their thoughts very quickly, and did not bother to ask the seer to divulge any more information. Instead, they continued on the urgent matter at hand, and Uriel finally asked, brown eyes filled with misgivings, "How long do you think we will need to acquire the permission from the British Ministry? Cornelius Fudge is too stubborn to admit that Voldemort is back…" he trailed off, and Raziel complained, "Why did Voldemort have to be from the United Kingdom? Couldn't he have been from some other country? Then we would not have to wait so long to launch an attack on him!"
Raphael chuckled at his almost-whining tone, but Silverdawn said sardonically, "For Uriel's question, I can only say that I'll get the agreement within this year. Threats will be necessary if all else fails… As for you, Raziel… That's the law my great, great, great, er… add a few more greats, grandfather gave: that the International Confederation is not to interfere in one's country without the approval of that particular country." Uriel silently agreed with the law, as did Raphael, but Raziel continued grumbling.
Shortly, they conferred on the upcoming raids, and finally went on their separate ways. As Silverdawn started to apparate back into Professor Snape's room, Raphael mind-spoke to her,
::Princess, do come up to Atzulith once in a while. The environment up there is better for your health.:: The color of his mindspeech was tinged with worry, and Silverdawn reassured him, :: I will, don't worry too much.::
Wryly, Raphael said, ::That's what I'm afraid of… you saying not to worry too much.::
At that, Silverdawn giggled and apparated back into the dungeon suite, her mind still laughing at the blond angel's statement. Slowly, she ambled into Snape's bedchamber, and was amused to see Hermione sleeping on the chair, slouched in a rather uncomfortable position. Professor Snape was still asleep, rather peacefully too. Smiling softly at the sleeping figures, she got into the kitchen and started making the food that Hermione chose: Sirloin steak with a savory sauce, cream of mushroom soup and homemade mint ice cream. She also baked some soft, butter croissants, potatoes, cheese pasta that Professor Snape simply adored, along with shepherd's pie and several fruit tarts. All these she made within forty minutes with the help of magic, and proceeded to place china (that she had bought for the professor years ago when she came for a short stay) and a pitcher of iced lemon tea on the dining table, along with a vase of champagne roses (transfigured from a spoon. *envy* The practicality of transfiguration!) before placing the steaming-hot food in the center..
Absent-mindedly, she placed a 'keep-warm' spell on the food, transformed back to her black-haired form, and sprawled on the fur rug in front of the fireplace, thinking of the prophecy that's to be fulfilled…
::But how did he become an angel???:: She thought, bewildered.
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Hogwarts Castle
Lowest Level Dungeons
Snape's bedchamber
"Arghh…" Snape moaned softly as he stretched his back lazily, feeling more energized than the past few days, which in turn, led him to be in a good mood. Lying on his back for a while, he proceeded to take down the Glamourie spell he had cast on himself.
"Expressionia reformis", he said in a low tone, and the facades started to dissolve. His beaky face blurred to form a well-defined face that looked rather similar to Salazar Snape's, with the difference being that this face looked more serious, lines permanently etched along the eyes and forehead. The crooked and yellowed teeth were now straight and pearly white, contrasting very well with slightly tanned face… if only he would smile more often! His greasy, black hair looked softer and much cleaner, with a healthy gloss that gleamed with a midnight-blue highlight. His complexion wasn't pale or sallow, but slightly tanned, though not much. The illusions the Glamourie spell created had very much made him look relatively ugly, but his real form was a good-looking man, definitely better than average. In fact, he was actually the man in those portraits with the black-haired girl in which Hermione had saw.
Still lying on his back, he gazed at the ceiling, puzzled as to why he was in bed. It took him a few moments to remember that he had fainted in class when he saw Silverdawn. ::Fainted:: he grimaced at the thought, ::Damn, I'm never going to live down to it. What will Minerva say?:: Inwardly, he groaned, but wondered about the cause of his fainting. ::When did that child turn black-haired? Last I saw, she was silver-haired…:: Deciding that he'll have a talk to Adam soon, he then realized that the after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse were no longer there. This startled him, for based on past experiences, (and there were many), the agony he experienced after being inflicted with the Cruciatus Curse usually lasts for two days in the least. Thus, this sense of peace came to him as a surprise.
Sensing that he wasn't wearing a shirt, the potions master started to get out of bed to grab one, but stopped on seeing a sleeping figure on a chair by the bedside. Cautiously, Snape got up, trying not to startle the person as he stared open-mouthed at the girl. ::The Granger girl?:: Snape thought, incredulous. Thinking that he had gotten it wrong, he stared on, but those chocolate-brown curls were unmistakably the Gryffindor's. ::what's she doing in my room?:: he pondered, feeling very baffled. His gaze locked onto the sleeping figure's for several minutes, trying to make out some answers, but, coming up with none, he silently went to the oak armoire and took out a black turtleneck.
Putting it on swiftly, he went back to the resting form on the chair. Hermione had been trying to move into a more comfortable position to sleep, but settled back fitfully when she could find none. Sighing, Snape gathered her in his arms without disrupting her sleep, and placed her in his bed, where she immediately cuddled the soft pillow beneath her head. Amused by this possessive action, the black-haired man just shook his head, and carelessly muzzled her hair, just like what he had done to a certain black-haired woman years ago. Slightly alarmed about his associating his former fiancée with this student, he cursed silently and headed for the living room, where the aroma of food caused his stomach to growl.
On seeing his god-daughter sprawled on her stomach on the rug, reading one of his ancient tomes of history, he mused at her previous ideas of his books being 'interesting' and 'easy-to-understand' when other people who, on given a chance to read it, would say it being 'boring' and 'my god! How do you even read these languages?' (his books were of all sorts of languages, ranging from simple English to many arcane languages: of Angelic, Elfish and etc.).
"Ahem." The professor gave a short cough, causing the girl – who had been thoroughly engrossed in the book – to jump and stand up abruptly. Silverdawn turned about to face the teacher, and ran to give him a hug.
"Professor Snape!" the black-haired girl greeted enthusiastically, pecking the strict professor on the cheek. Severus Snape raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Seriously speaking, I can't stand any of you greeting me like that, especially you and Azrael." Consequently, Silverdawn laughed, and conceded, "Uncle Severus..."
"That's much better." Snape smirked, but the black-haired girl added, "…Godfather." Raising his hand to his face, Snape groaned, "I know I'm old, but don't make me feel it, Silver." Smiling cheekily, Silverdawn tugged his sleeve, and brought him over to the dining table, saying, "Godfather, I made some food and I want you to eat it." Stomach growling once more, Severus was more than happy to comply, but asked, "What about Miss Granger?"
As if just remembering that Hermione was still sleeping, Silverdawn got up from her seat and said, "I'll go call her up. You'd better tuck in first." The older man acknowledged this statement with a nod, and started heaping some cheese pasta on his plate. Grinning, Silverdawn went to his bedchamber, and proceeded to call Hermione up…
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End of Chapter 6…
I'm sorry for putting this up so late… but I was trying to figure out what my biology and chemistry notes mean… I'm sorry, but I just got my school timetable recently and it sucks big time! *whines* Geez! I practically end at 5pm each day, and on Thursday, I end at 7pm. So by the time I reach home, I'm ready to plop into bed to sleep… *grumbles* I am sabotaged to become the AV coordinator for my class, but, *grins* I got back at my friends by making them the Treasurer and Class Representative during our class nominations! *laughs evilly* I know I'm bad, but they asked for it.
Note:
I've read of the Glamourie spell from several stories on the net, so I thought that it would be well that Snape used the Glamourie spell to hide his original features. Just imagine, he entered Hogwarts as Potions Master at a rather young age, perhaps at twenty-two, and being handsome didn't help when he was the youngest Professor (then) in Hogwarts. Severus had to prove that he was a competent teacher with the added fact that the other Professors did not have faith in him as he was a former Death Eater. (the trust and respect the other professors now have on him had been built up very slowly…) Thus, he did not have time to cope with the schoolgirl crushes the female students have on him. As a result, he put up the Glamourie spell to make him look both ugly and feared by students.
-End of Note-
Again, I apologize for the lateness, but hope you guys like this chapter.
As some reviewers have said, I'm not writing much about the original HP characters, so I'll try to change this bad habit (in writing) of mine, and add more scenes on the HP crew. I'll also try to make the UWIM characters to take less of the parts, but Silverdawn and Azrael will play quite a big part.
So that's all for now. Please review and thanks!!!
Love
~~@ SilverDawn @~~